Stocks Follow Election With Selloff

Updated from 1:39 p.m. EST

U.S. stocks were down in the dumps Wednesday afternoon as traders took in some bearish corporate news and dreary economic data, while sizing up their prospects following Barack Obama's victory in the presidential election.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was shedding 330 points to 9295, and the S&P 500 was lower by 33 points at 972. The Nasdaq dropped 63 points to 1717.

Several bits of data about the broad economy painted a grim picture. Automatic Data Processing reported that the U.S. lost 157,000 jobs in October. Economists had forecast a loss of 100,000 jobs. The ADP figure for September was revised to a loss of 26,000 jobs from an initial read of 8,000.

Writing for his RealMoney.com blog, Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist for Miller Tabak, said that ADP's employment readings have in the past few months registered fewer job losses than the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is set to report its October employment data on Friday.

"These data will help further prepare the financial markets for the possibility of a weak jobs report," he wrote. He said the next step for the market is to assess the extent and duration of the economic downturn.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services index showed a reading of 44.4 for October, down from 50.2 in September. Economists were looking for the index to register at 47.

"We're continuing to go downhill in terms of the [economic] cycle. Now that doesn't mean that the market is going to go straight down," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial. "We're seeing a bear-market rally here, and it's just a matter of how far they can take this," he said.